In the field of railway track technology, systems have been developed to reduce or hinder, in particular, noise and vibration.
In a known arrangement, a rail of a railway track is supported on rail support blocks arranged at intervals under the rail. These blocks are embedded in a concrete slab. The slab is commonly poured around the blocks, but it is also known to place the blocks in corresponding cavities in a slab. To reduce noise and vibrations resulting from rail vehicles passing over the railway a resilient member is present between each block and the slab.
In a known system developed by the present applicant, a resilient rail support block assembly is manufactured, which is ready to be mounted to the rail to be supported. The assembly includes a concrete block adapted for fastening the rail on the top of the block. This assembly further includes a concrete tray extending below and spaced from the bottom of the block as well as around and spaced from the lower region of the peripheral wall of the block. A resilient material, such as sold under the trade name Corkelast, has been poured during manufacture of the assembly between the concrete tray and the block. Upon polymerisation (while maintaining its resilient property) the resilient material adheres to the concrete block and concrete tray and thus bonds said tray to the block. When installing a rail, the known rail support block assemblies are positioned at intervals along the rails and fastened thereto. Thereafter a slab of concrete is poured, so that the concrete trays are embedded in and become integral with the slab. This method is known in the art as the “fix and forget method”.
In ES1065079U the present applicant describes an improved resilient railway block assembly. In this document the resilient rail support block assembly, comprises a prefabricated resilient member as well as a block. The prefabricated resilient member is adapted to be fixed to said block so as to extend under the bottom of the block as well as around at least a lower region of the peripheral wall of the block. The prefabricated resilient member comprises an outer tray and inner tray arranged within said outer tray, and said prefabricated resilient member further comprises a resilient intermediate structure being arranged between said outer and inner trays.
As mentioned in ES1065079U, the installation of a lengthy stretch of railway requires a very large number of rail support block assemblies. Therefore the present invention aims to provide a highly efficient and reliable manufacturing method for rail support block assemblies which include a prefabricated resilient member of the type disclosed in ES1065079U.